All the Little Liars (7 page)

“Can't have it both ways,” I muttered. “He needs to be with some adult related to him, and I'm the only one left after my dad's escapade.”

“There's some talk back and forth between Phillip and his teachers in California,” Robin said. “Okay, none of that is pertinent. I'm going to check his browsing history.” After a minute, I could tell he was trying not to be amused. “Okay, about what I would expect from a kid his age. I'm not surprised that Detective What's Her Name didn't find any porn in his room.”

“Oh, it's all there on the Internet?”

“Yep,” he said. “And if the sites he visited are any indication, I was right about Phillip admiring adult women.”

“I assumed that was the case,” I said. “But I realize that I really don't know everything about Phillip.”

“I didn't find any suspect activity,” Robin said. “I checked his e-mails and his history. I checked his Facebook page. In a minute, I'll check his Word files.”

“I don't think Phillip is a bad kid at
all,
” I said. “Oh, I'm sure he takes a drink now and then if it's available. I'm sure he'd be glad to have sex with a girl who was willing, in fact I know he would. Maybe he'd take a joint if one was going around at a party. But I don't think he goes out looking for trouble. And I am sure that Phillip is brave. And I know he has a lot of charm; he got that from my dad. And he's practical; he got that from his mother.” I thought hard. “I don't think he's ever lied to me, either when he was a kid or since he's come here. And I don't think there's anything—sick, or tainted—in my brother.”

“Then why is he missing?” Robin, his hands still resting on the keyboard, was giving me his full attention.

“Phillip's new here, really new,” I said. “I think Cathy Trumble, if she's an accurate representative of the police position, is looking at this as something Phillip made happen. He's the unknown kid. Maybe they think because he's a newcomer from wicked, evil, California, he's brought a taint with him. What they don't get is that he lived in a suburb a lot like the ones here. It's just that there were palm trees.”

“Good point,” Robin said. He scanned the Word files. “Nothing even remotely suspect,” he told me. “What else? I can tell you're not finished.”

“The way I see it, they can't be missing because of Phillip. It has to be one of the other three, who've lived here—well, forever, in the case of Joss and Josh, and for years, in Liza's case.”

“That makes sense,” Robin said. Robin has a quirky face, with his bony nose and crinkled mouth and bright blue eyes. But right now you could see the intelligence written large on it. “If I were putting this in a book, my story line would be that someone followed Phillip from California because Phillip had witnessed some criminal action. The other kids tried to save him but were swept up in the same net.”

“But,” I said.

“But that's ridiculous. What do you know about the Finstermeyer kids?”

“I don't know Joss as well as I know Josh. She's a jock, I understand, and very talented. She plays basketball and soccer for LHS. She makes good grades. Josh is more of a reader. He's in and out of the library at least once a week. He's a good student, he's always on the honor roll. He's pretty popular. He runs track. Phillip was thinking about trying out for the track team. He didn't make the cut at his old school.”

“Have you heard any rumors about either of them?”

“Not a one. Phillip was mildly interested in Joss as a girl, but when he didn't say anything about trying to move the relationship along, I asked him about her. He said she was gay.”

Robin looked startled. “He didn't feel angry about that?”

“He was totally nonchalant about it, not like a spurned suitor or a bigot. Just, ‘Oh, I don't think it'll work. I'm pretty sure she's gay.'”

“Liza,” Robin said. “Any rumors about her?”

“You know, it's strange,” I said slowly, “but when Aubrey was in the library a couple of days ago, he said that Liza had had a hard year.”

“In what way?”

“He didn't elaborate, but I got the impression that it was more a social situation than making bad grades, or not being able to grasp geography.”

“But he reinforced that she had a crush on Phillip.”

I shrugged. “Robin, she's just so young. Eleven is still a little girl, especially to Phillip and Josh. I can't help feeling that there's something more to know. And now, while I think about that, or try not to, I have to call my dad.” I'd been dreading this.

The phone call went just as badly as I'd anticipated. My father accused me of ignoring Phillip, of neglecting him, of not protecting him. I had known he'd be upset and angry—and I'd figured he might aim that anger at me—but it was like he'd forgotten that I was his child, too. There was no way I was going to tell him he'd be a grandfather while he was this upset with me. I had tears streaming down my face when I hung up in response to Robin's furious hand signals.

“You don't have to listen to that,” Robin said, wrapping his long arms around me. “You don't have to take that abuse.”

“I knew he was going to go off the deep end,” I said. “Who wouldn't? But I took the best care of Phillip I knew how to do!”

“At least you weren't having sex with me on the couch when he walked in the door,” Robin said. That was the incident that had pushed Phillip to leave his parents. My dad had been doing the nasty with a young woman on the living room couch when Phillip had returned home from school one day. Phillip had felt he had to tell his mother, and he'd developed a wild plan to hitchhike to my place because he couldn't stand the arguments and recriminations that ensued. After Phillip left, Betty Jo had packed her bags and vanished.

“Yes, at least that,” I said, trying to smile. I calmed down and dried up. “I'm lucky to have one good parent,” I said. “What was your dad like?”

“We'll talk about him some other time,” Robin said. “Let's keep on track here.”

I nodded. I went to the bathroom to wash my face with cold water. I know how I look when I cry, and it's not pretty.

Just as I returned to the family room, there was a tap on the front door. If a tap could sound surreptitious, this one did. I went to the door, casting a
What the hell?
look at Robin while I did so. He stood, as if he was going to stop me, but before I could even process that, I'd opened the door and looked up.

She was tall, almost as tall as Phillip, about five foot eight. She was wearing blue jeans and a dark green T-shirt and a bright blue puffy coat. She had black hair and caramel skin and enormous amber eyes, and I had never seen her before.

“I'm Sarah Washington,” she said. “Are you Phillip's sister?”

“Yes, please come in,” I said. I could tell the intensity of my stare was freaking her out, but I couldn't help it. This girl had information.

“This is my husband,” I told Sarah. “Robin, this is Sarah Washington. You're a friend of Phillip's, Sarah?”

“A new friend,” she said, with a small smile. “We met when he and Josh picked Joss up after basketball practice a couple of weeks ago. I'm on the basketball team with Joss.”

I nodded. And?

“Well, Phillip and me started talking,” she said.

I knew enough teens to know that when two people started “talking” it was a prelude to actually going out on a date.

I cast an eye on Robin, who nodded very slightly. He knew this, too.

“In the course of our talk, he told me that Liza Scott was following him around, as much as she could, since she can't even drive yet.”

“We had heard that Liza had a crush on Phillip,” Robin said, his voice neutral.

“Well, it was really cute,” Sarah said, as though she were in her forties. “But it kind of embarrassed Phillip. I mean, Liza's a cute kid, really, but she's a
little kid.
” Sarah looked at me as if to be sure I understood how hopeless that was. I nodded, with what I hoped was an understanding smile, and that turned out to be the right expression.

Sarah's face turned very serious. “I think Phillip was careful to be kind to her because of—you know, right, about Liza's situation at school?”

“I've heard a little.” I was absolutely startled, but I didn't want to seem like a half-wit. This girl's calm assurance was kind of daunting. “Apparently, I don't know enough. Please tell me.” I'd discovered from a stranger that my brother was kind … and that he'd had a “situation” of his own.

Sarah nodded, as if she'd confirmed a suspicion. “Bullying. Liza's mom and dad have been to the school several times. They've talked to all the parents. But these little bitches, excuse me, just won't leave Liza alone.”

We'd been standing, but now I saw we were going to have a conversation, and I gestured to the couch and the chairs. Sarah sank into one of the armchairs, so Robin and I took the couch. Robin's big hand folded around mine. I was so relieved he was there.

“How old are these girls? What are they doing to Liza?”

“They're twelve or thirteen. And they're saying awful shit about her to her face. And on Facebook. And on every other place they can find to say nasty stuff.”

“Why?”

“It's a long story.” Sarah shrugged. “Liza tried to tell me about it, but I got lost in the pronouns, you know? Too many ‘then she said this' and ‘then someone else said that.'”

“So these girls ganged up on Liza.”

“Yeah, it's all over the schools. 'Cause her dad's a minister, and because Liza is freaking out. When Liza's mom went down to the school, she asked to talk with each of the girls separately, with the school counselor present. The principal at Liza's school, Mr. Carson, he couldn't let Mrs. Scott do that. So she went to their houses and talked to the parents.”

“Good for her,” I said. Emily might not be my favorite person, but she had a backbone and she loved Liza.

“Yeah, but it got worse after that. Like ‘Little kid, sent your mommy to fight for you,' type thing.” Sarah shook her head. “Anyway, that's why when Liza kind of latched on to Phillip, he didn't have the heart to shut her down.”

Thank God,
I thought. My brother was kind. I held that to my heart like an ember to warm it. “And that's why Liza was with Phillip and Josh and Joss? When they went missing?”

Sarah looked relieved. “See, I was standing right by them at the soccer field, so I heard what they said. I'd given a lesson to Harmony Davis, and Joss was working with Liza. But the little creeps had come over to the soccer field just to say nasty stuff to Liza.” Sarah shook her head, her lips compressed in a look of disgust. “They were almost … jeering at her. And Liza's mom was late picking her up. Of course, Liza wanted to get away from them. She asked Joss for a ride home. Joss was on the phone with Tammy, but she said sure. Then Phillip and Josh came to get Joss, and they were all getting into the car when I left, myself.”

“When did you last hear from Phillip? Or any of them?” Robin asked.

“I got a text from Phillip right around then,” Sarah said. She messed with her phone, which she'd been clutching in her hand for the whole conversation, and showed us her initial text and the exchange it had initiated.

Where r u going?

Taking Liza home. C U later?

Could happen.

“So you had plans to meet later?”

“Well,” Sarah said, waving her hands. “Maybe. We'd talked about going to the movies. But he wanted to let you know, and I had to ask my mom.” Sarah looked embarrassed that she had to tell her mother where she was going. “Since my mom doesn't know Phillip, she'd have to meet him. And we'd have to go in my car.”

At fifteen, Phillip didn't have a car, of course. He hadn't even gotten his learner's permit. I hadn't realized what a handicap that was going to be for Phillip's social life. But that wasn't important now.

“So Liza was taking a lesson from Joss, and when it was over, Mrs. Scott hadn't gotten there to pick Liza up, so Josh, Joss, and Phillip decided to take her home,” I said, by way of recap.

“Yeah. I think normally they would have hung around for Mrs. Scott to get there, right? But the three witches were around, and Joss had to get to her hair appointment.”

Beth had mentioned a hair appointment, but it hadn't really registered with me. “Where was that?” Robin said.

Sarah looked blank.

“Where does Joss get her hair done? We can drive the route they would have driven.”

“Good luck, then, because I did and I didn't see anything,” Sarah said rather unexpectedly. “Joss was getting her hair cut at Shear Delight on Pickett Street.”

I found myself liking Sarah more and more, and not least because of her unpredictability.

“So you haven't heard from any of them since Phillip's text?” Robin asked.

“No,” Sarah said. “I mean, no sir.”

I saved that for later. Robin rated a “sir,” which meant either he looked more formidable than I did, or he looked older than I did.

“Sarah, thanks so much for coming over and filling us in on the situation,” I said.

“My dad didn't want me to,” Sarah said. “But my mom thought it was only right.”

“I can see both their points of view,” Robin said diplomatically. “But I know when we get Phillip back, he'll be grateful.”

She grinned. “Well, I hope so. On both counts. Oh, before I forget, I passed another car coming into the parking lot when I was pulling out. At the soccer field.”

“Who was in it?” I asked.

For the first time, Sarah hesitated. “I'm not sure,” she said slowly. “And I don't want to get anyone in trouble. Not with something this big.”